


once upon a time, there was a robin

by sunflowerpeachie



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: #veryviolent #sad #happyending #sexualabuse #butnotexplicit, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:26:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28137663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerpeachie/pseuds/sunflowerpeachie
Summary: Hotch finds an old lover... who is now a criminal.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Original Female Character(s), Jason Gideon & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	once upon a time, there was a robin

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS !  
> sex trafficking, sexual abuse, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping... but with a happy ending.   
> if i missed anything that could be triggering, please let me know !   
> also none of this is explicit, it is mentioned in a paragraph and that is it.

Hotch had been separated by the team. The industrial estate they were in was like a maze and they had all had to go down different ways to cover more ground. His breathing was heavy as he sped down the hallway, gun at the ready as he turned a corner. There were so many ways to go and he was sure he would get lost at some point, but hopefully he would find these damn killers on the way. 

Sweat beaded down his forehead which he wiped away with his sleeve. It was burning hot in there, but he didn’t know where the heat was coming from seeing as it was winter and extremely cold outside. 

He came at a crossroads and decided to turn right, but quickly made his way back down to the left when he realized it was getting colder on the right side. Wherever the heat was coming from was probably where he would find the poor girls who had been kidnapped a couple of nights ago. 

The farther he got into this maze, the hotter it got, until he finally ended up at a door which was cracked open, a warm light spilling from it. He heard a fire crackling inside, and Hotch knew it must be huge to warm up such a large amount of space. There was also whimpering coming from inside. When he heard a girl scream, he peeked inside and saw four girls sitting lined up against the far wall, wrists and ankles tied up and gagged. He creeped away from the door until he was sure that he was far enough away that they wouldn’t hear him and called Gideon, whispering to him that he had found them and to come to the South side of the estate. 

“Get Garcia to track my phone, you won’t find me otherwise,” he whispered.

“We’re on our way,” Gideon said and Aaron heard him running before hanging up.

Hotch crept back to the door and glanced back in. What were they waiting for ? They knew the FBI was onto them and they had the four girls. So why were they waiting ?

“Where is he goddamnit ?” one of the killers, a tall burly man, grunted, pulling at his hair. 

William Shatner. A well known serial killer from Iowa. The team already knew that he was one of the people who had been kidnapping girls. They didn’t, however, have the second person’s identity. 

“He’ll show,” the second person said, seemingly irritated by Shatner’s behavior. Hotch was surprised to hear a woman’s voice, seeing as women were very uncommon when it came to kidnapping and killing other females.

“Well I can’t wait no longer,” Shatner grumbled and stalked over to the line of girls, pulling the first one up by her hair and dragging her towards the bonfire. 

“ _ He said to wait _ ,” the woman ordered, gripping his forearm.

“Oh Honey,” he said mockingly. “You ain’t the boss of me. You’re my bitch. Don’t you get that ? I don’t need you.” He gripped her forearm with force and pulled her off, throwing her to the ground.

“I never wanted this !” she said, voice cracking with emotion. “You forced me into this ! Why ? If you didn’t need me, then why ?”

“Well, to put the blame on someone of course,  _ Sweetheart. _ ”

“You’re a monster,” she spat but Shatner wasn’t listening. He continued to drag the sobbing girl to the bonfire.

“Get the second one,” he grunted, pulling the girl’s hair, but the woman didn’t move. “ _ Get the second one _ ,” he repeated and pulled a gun on her. 

The woman scrambled up and walked slowly towards the line of girls, determined to show him that she wasn’t scared of him, even though he had a gun on her. She pulled the second girl up, much more delicately then the man had, and started walking her over to the bonfire. . 

When Shatner got next to the bonfire, looking about ready to throw the girl in, Hotch threw all caution to the wind, knowing the team wouldn’t get there in time and threw the door open, pulling his gun up.

“F.B.I., put your hands in the air !” he shouted. The woman immediately did, back turned to him. The girl she was holding up fell to the floor, sobbing. Shatner, on the other hand, had other ideas. He threw the girl down next to the fire, her arm getting caught in it and turned to run to another door on the other side of the room. Just then, Gideon and Morgan showed up. Seeing the situation, they both ran after the man whereas Hotch ran after the woman who was sprinting to the fire exit. 

He got up close to her and jumped on her, tackling her to the ground. She grunted with the force, hitting her head on the way down. She was instantly knocked out. Hotch got a pair of handcuffs on her before turning her over to see who she was. His eyes widened in shock.

“Robin ?” he whispered.

When the rest of the team arrived, Morgan was keeping an eye on Shatner while Gideon untied the girls. Hotch was kneeling beside this unknown woman, dabbing at her bleeding forehead with a tenderness they had never seen.

🕊

When Robin woke up, she was thoroughly confused. The first thing she became aware of was the floor. There was something underneath her, digging into her back and she tried to shift into a more comfortable position but the pain in her forehead and something tying her arms together were stopping her. 

She blearily opened her eyes, unable to do more than squint. People were running around her, big men in big protective suits. Why were there firemen ? What really caught her attention though, was the man above her. He was shouting instructions across the room while dabbing at her head. When he came more into focus, her eyes widened in shock.

“What the fuck ?” she muttered. 

His gaze fell back down to her and he frowned. “Robin. You’re awake.”

“What the actual fuck,” she said louder, trying to scramble up, but he held her down with a hand on her shoulder. She wouldn’t have gotten far anyway, she was surrounded by police, firemen and the FBI apparently.

“Stay still. You hit your head pretty bad when you fell,” Aaron ordered. 

“When you tackled me,” she muttered back, feeling pretty bitter about it.

“You strung up four kids and tried to burn them,” Aaron answered stiffly, tensing up. He seemed to remember the fact that Robin was the bad guy here, not the victim. “Why ? Why did you do this ?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” she said, batting his hand away from her wound and trying to get up, failing again. It was only then that she realised her wrists were bound together with handcuffs. They were digging into her skin so she tried moving them around a bit to relieve the tension.

“Are they hurting you ?” Aaron moved to loosen the cuffs but her hands automatically jerked away from him. She glared up at him.

“I’m the bad guy here. Remember ? Don’t treat me any differently just because we dated over fifteen years ago. How’s your  _ wife  _ by the way ?” she spat.

“Dead.”

“Oh,” she mumbled; “Sorry… Can I at least sit up ?” 

“You hit your head pretty bad…”

“Oh come on it doesn’t even hurt. Help me up,” she ordered, putting her hands in the air so he could pull her up. She groaned and stretched her back, feeling it pop. “How long was I out ?”

“Not long.”

“That’s very specific,” Robin mocked.

“Just tell me why you did this,” Aaron said sternly, standing up to pace back and forth. “You wanted to be in the police force when we were younger, so how did you turn out like this ?”

“Things change,” she answered venomously.

“ _ What things ? _ ”

“I don’t owe you an explanation Aaron ! You’re not my  _ boyfriend _ anymore, you dumped me to go off with Haley fucking Brooks ! Don’t stand here and pretend you fucking care about me !”

“You’re still bitter about that ?”

“You don’t know the half of what I went through, Aaron, so  _ don’t  _ patronize me,” Robin spat.

“What went wrong with you ?” Aaron asked, more to himself this time. 

“Just bring me to wherever the fuck you’re going to interrogate me. I’ll confess to everything. Just not to you,” Robin muttered before turning away from him.

🕊

“So,” Jason Gideon started, sitting on the side of the table next to where Robin’s hands were shackled. “I’ve been told by Hotchner that you would confess to everything ?”

“Yep.”

“Old friends, you and Hotch ?”

Robin snorted. “You could say that.”

“You seem pretty bitter. What happened ? He dump you for another girl ? Cheated on you maybe ?” Gideon asked with that strange smile he always did when interrogating someone.

“Something like that,” she answered drily. “I know what you’re doing. That little game you FBI types like to play. Be friendly with the criminal, get them to trust you, end up pushing their buttons  _ et caetera _ ,  _ et caetera _ ,  _ et caetera _ …”

“You were pregnant,” Gideon said with satisfaction.

Robin narrowed her eyes at him, trying not to show her shock. “What makes you think that ?”

“You don’t seem like the type of person who would obsess over someone breaking up with them for years, and we know you haven’t been stalking him, so there must be something important, something that took a toll on you and maybe even the people around you. Something you hate Hotchner for, but you can’t tell him about.”

“Bravo. You solved the mystery Mr. Gideon. Aaron was my baby daddy,” she said sarcastically, frantically trying to shove the tears she felt coming on back down her tear ducts.

“So which was it ? Miscarriage or abortion?”

Well, there was no point in lying now. He had read her like an open book. That was his job after all. “Abortion,” she muttered. “I got my parents to send me overseas to get it done seeing as the fucking United States government didn’t want me to get one. Couldn’t help a poor seventeen year old out, could they ?”

“Must have been pretty traumatic, huh ? Is that why you became a criminal ? Hated the government ? Wanted to get back at them ?”

“Oh, Jason. You’ve got it all wrong,” she laughed. 

“Enlighten me,” he smiled down at her.

“Imagine this : young Robin Castelle coming out of the Harvard library late at night, bright eyed and innocent. She had been studying hard, and she was a hundred percent ready for her test the next day. Only, she never made it to that test. Instead, she was snatched up by some psycho who was a part of sex trafficking. For  _ years _ she was  _ abused, raped, sold _ to different pervs, until she couldn’t take it anymore. Wanting to get back at them, the people who hurt her, the people who got her pregnant time and time again and kicked her until her unborn child died time and time again, she decided to change things. After a bit of seduction, a bit of manipulation, making them think she was on  _ their side _ , she started to rise up in the ranks. The bastards started to trust her, gave her jobs. And earlier this evening, when you found poor, poor Robin, she was going to put a bullet in her bosses head, and fucking Willy Shatner’s head, get the girls out and Run. For. Her. Life.”

Whereas there had been a few stray tears running down her face while she told Gideon what had happened to her, afterwards, she started bawling, tiny whimpers of grief making their way out of her mouth. She laid her head down between her arms on the table and felt Gideon’s hand stroking her hair. 

“You’re safe now,” he muttered. “You’re safe now.”

Robin cried herself dry. She cried all of the tears she had held back over the years, all of the angry, scared, grief stricken tears that she hadn’t dared to shed. At some point the handcuffs had been removed and someone had taken her into their arms. She had flinched away at first, so used to being beaten and abused, but when the person only held her close, she melted into the touch. She hadn’t felt a loving touch in a long time.

When she finally calmed down, she pulled away from who she supposed was Gideon and wiped her eyes and face on her sleeves. After that little crying session, she felt better than she had in the last ten years. 

She took a final deep breath, getting ready to face Gideon again, maybe send him a snarky remark. What she wasn’t ready for though, was to see Aaron Hotchner crouching in front of her, hand still sitting comfortably on her neck. She glanced around the room and noticed that Gideon had left. 

“I didn’t know,” he said. He seemed pretty broken up and, seeing the haunted look in his eyes, Robin felt a little guilty she had just sprung all of that information on him. Because yes, she did know he would be watching behind the screen. “If I had known I never would have broken up with you. I would have stayed and taken care of you and the baby.”

“You were eighteen Aaron. You had your whole life ahead of you. I wouldn’t have taken that away from you,” she muttered, unable to meet his eyes. “And anyway, what would have been the point in staying if you didn’t love me ?”

“ _ You  _ had your whole life ahead of you too, Robin. And now- and you- you were-”

Robin put a hand on his to stop him from saying anything else. “Don’t. I don’t need to hear it again.”

“The rest of the team caught Victor Samwell,” Aaron said instead. “So you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Wow. You got the boss man... It’s weird. I know I’m free of them, but I still feel like I’m trapped in a cage. Like a bird.”

“Well, you’ll still have to go through a trial but with all the evidence we’ve got and your story you won’t be going to prison any time soon, the team and I will make sure of that. They might ask you to step up for Samwell’s trail, if you’re up for it. But after that, you really will be free,” Hotch assured her.

Robin hummed, worrying at her lip. She seemed lost, scared. 

“Do you have anywhere to go ?” he asked softly.

“What do you think ? The last place I had was at Harvard. That was over ten years ago. God,” she said, voice cracking. “I was with them for ten years.” She put her head in her hands and rocked back and forth of the chair. “I honestly don’t know how I survived. Most of the girls… Some would commit suicide, others were killed off. I was the oldest woman there. I don’t understand why I’m still here.”

“You were incredibly brave,” Hotch said and he started stroking her hair again while she cried. “You can stay with me for a while. If you’d like, of course.”

Robin lifted her head slightly to look up at Aaron with tear filled eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered and threw her arms around him.

🕊

One year later

Robin ended up changing her name, for her own protection. She was now known as Rose, or Rosie, Moore. She took up Aaron’s offer and stayed with him and Jack, his kid, while she searched for her own place. She never did end up moving out though. At first, she felt uncomfortable taking up space in his home, but after offering to find another place to stay dozens of times and him saying that he was happy that she was there, that there was no rush for her to move out, she stopped offering. 

The first few months had been the toughest. She was severely depressed and spent most of her time in bed, staring up at the ceiling and crying. She didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, just…breathed. She started going to therapy four times a week and slowly, very slowly started getting better. 

Against her therapist's better judgement, she and Aaron started dating after a while. It felt like they had never stopped. They instantly connected again and Robin stopped feeling bitter after all those years. She had finally realized that she wasn’t bitter at Aaron, she was just angry at herself.

She wasn’t well enough to find a job and didn’t even have her diploma so for that first year, she stayed at Hotch's taking care of Jack, who loved her, when Aaron wasn’t home and cooking for the boys (the first month she started, they had all either gone to bed hungry, or filled up with takeaway - she had never actually learnt how to cook). 

She rediscovered herself and the things she loved, had a few mental breakdowns along the way, but Aaron was always there to help her. 

No matter what, he was always there to pick her back up. That was one of the reasons why she loved him.


End file.
